Mainpac case study – RCA

Mainpac EAM OnDemand is playing a pivotal role in helping the owner and residents of Retirement Communities Australia (RCA) in Victoria to achieve industry accreditation. RCA operations manager Peter Quinn said industry accreditation reassures residents that its villages meet certain minimum operating standards.

Point Cook Village, is the first village licensed Mainpac EAM OnDemand as the information system to monitor and manage the maintenance of 281 residences and associated infrastructure. Followed by the success of the implementation at Point Cook Village, three other villages including Martha Cove Village, Beleura Village Mornington, and Main St Village Pakenham owned and operated by Retirement Communities Australia (RCA), have also successfully deployed Mainpac EAM OnDemand.

The Requirement

Retirement villages are accredited against industry-determined standards under what is called the Lifemark Village Scheme. Individual villages apply for accreditation, self-assess how they meet various standards and are then audited by an organisation which oversees the scheme. This audit includes speaking with residents, inspection of administration records, documents and processes and of maintenance policies and processes, including having a legislatively compliant maintenance program.

“We needed a maintenance program that was scalable, simple to use and cost-effective for a fixed income business in which a small number of staff is responsible for maintaining the exterior of all villas and apartments, a clubhouse, bowling green, swimming pool and common grounds,” Mr. Quinn explains.

The Solution

RCA conducted extensive research and evaluation of in- premises, cloud and on- demand potential maintenance solutions. The research, over about 15 months, was undertaken in-house using the knowledge and expertise of staff and Residents Committee members to assess and determine the suitability of various programs.

Mr Quinn said “our primary selection criteria included ease of use, scalability of the program and simple, accurate, reporting. Much of the investigation and trial, as well as discussions regarding the modifications required to suit the Village needs, were undertaken by a member of the Residents Committee who was instrumental in determining that Mainpac was the preferred system.”

As well as testing trial versions, discussions were held with software architects to assess whether their solutions could be modified to suit the requirements of a retirement village.

The majority of programs were rejected after trials as not being configurable enough for the Village’ requirements and being too onerous in the data input required.

Mainpac was chosen because it could be configured to suit the requirements of the Village and did not require multiple screens and input requirements that were irrelevant. It was also assessed as being user-friendly and able to produce reports that provided the right amount of detail.

RCA management worked with the Residents Committee and staff to adapt the system to the requirements of Point Cook Village. Peter Quinn said the people on the Residents Committee were the driving force behind the implementation of the system.

In operation work requests are input to the system by an administration staff member with majority of works being undertaken by the Village maintenance staff. The Village Manager has an overview of the system and generates reports for Committee meetings while Peter Quinn, as RCA’s Operations Manager, has access to ascertain overall usage, success and viability of the system for RCA’s other Villages.

The Benefits

Since the introduction of Mainpac, a survey undertaken by the Residents Committee as part of the accreditation process has confirmed a significant improvement in response times to maintenance requests, as well as better monitoring and control from a management perspective said Mr. Quinn.

Mainpac has increased the productivity of maintenance staff as it enables them to access the system using iPads while undertaking their duties, thereby reducing the time taken to respond to maintenance requests.

“The system generates an email to the relevant person when a new work request is entered so we have eliminated the need for the staff to return to the office to collect job sheets.”
“It also enables electronic sign-off once a job is completed, again negating the need for staff to return to the office,” Mr. Quinn said.

Additionally, the staff member can inspect the job request and immediately forward it to other trades or staff if required. This allows the Village to keep track of who has been involved in works and track associated costs.

“Based on its success we will implement the system in our other villages to ensure a consistent approach to maintenance as well as to analyse issues that may prove common to all. In time it will also prove to be a valuable budgeting tool providing far more detail on the cost of maintenance in areas such as plumbing, electrical and grounds upkeep.”

“We also expect the system will allow us to compare costs against exact criteria for planning and design changes at future villages. As the expertise in using the system improves, the suite of capabilities will be increased to address more of the daily operations and cost control in one system,” Mr. Quinn said.